Today, large quantities of information are stored on magnetic storage devices. Exemplary magnetic storage devices include magnetic tapes for storing video and audio information, and floppy and hard disks for storing computer data. A concern to those who store important information on such magnetic media is that the information will erase over time. This concern is warranted, as magnetic media are known to degrade over time. See Time Machine: Life With Video, FILM COMMENT, Nov.-Dec. 1991, p. 72. The degradation may result in reduced video or audio quality, and in the case of computer software, may result in an inoperable program or a non-retrievable data file.
Each of these magnetic media is typically provided with a storage case at the time of purchase. The storage case may be a coated cardboard container or a container made of plastic. Such storage cases provide only a limited degree of protection to the magnetic media contained therein. With respect to videotapes, for example, these conventional containers do little more than keep dirt, dust, and smoke away from the videotape. Accordingly, those concerned with information loss have been forced to make copies of their data as a solution to the risk of relying on a single magnetic storage device. Each copy generated will exhibit a reduction in quality because a perfect copy cannot practically be made, even if the information is digitally encoded, in view of local imperfections in the magnetic media base or coating materials. In the case of analog information, for example, a video of a wedding, any loss of signal is a permanent loss of the recorded information. As for digital information, error correction routines and redundancy are solutions that can minimize the effects of degradation; however, neither solution is curative of the problem of degradation.
Manufacturers of video tapes have warned of the detrimental impact of magnetic fields on the long term storage of videotapes, yet they have not offered any solutions to the problem of archival videotape storage. Rather, these manufacturers have merely advised consumers to avoid storing video tapes near field generating devices such as stereo speakers and television sets: See R. Zimmerman, "Shelf Lives And Videotape," FORTUNE, p. 99, Oct. 18, 1993. The reason for this advice is that conventional storage containers do not shield the video tapes from electric and magnetic fields (EMF) or electrostatic discharges (ESD). Conventional storage containers for both videotapes and computer disks are electrically insulating and therefore provide no mechanism to divert EMF and ESD.
The Sony Corporation is one of few videotape manufactures that has publicly commented on the longevity of recordings on videotape. Sony's testing has indicated that cool, low humidity conditions are required for long term storage of video tapes (approximately fifteen years) without significant degradation. See F. Beachan, "Videotape's Wonder Years," VIDEO, pp. 50-51 and 95-97, Oct. 1991. Yet, despite this testing, no known video storage containers exist which actively reduce humidity and otherwise address the problems of archival storage of video tapes (and computer disks). Known storage containers, in particular, the plastic "clam-shell" case, may protect a tape stored therein from external moisture, but still do not actively protect the tape from humidity within the container or remove humidity from the tape itself.
Electromagnetic interference (EMI) is the combined interference effect of magnetic and electric fields. There have been advances in shielding EMI sources such as television sets, computer monitors, stereo speakers, and the like. However, what is needed in the art and has heretofore not been provided is a storage system for magnetic media that is adapted for storing such media for archival purposes, that is, for prolonged periods of time, while shielding the magnetic media from the degrading effects of EMI-and moisture. The present invention satisfies these and other needs in a low cost, simple to manufacture system.